#big finish reveiws

[multifr0g]

I FINISHED ECHOES OF WISDOM AND I'M SOBBING!!!!!!(⌇ຶД⌇ຶ)

It took roughly 22-23 hours and I haven't even done all the side quests or collected all the heart pieces!

(My reveiw under the cut!!)

||||⚠️SPOILERS FOR EOW⚠️||||

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Echoes of Wisdom is a beautiful, well thought, and diverse game. Unlike many other Zelda games EoW shows just how creative you can get with how you want to play!! Say if you wanted to climb a cliff that's to tall, well you could use a table and box combo to make your way up! Or you could use a cloud echo to infinitely reach the top, or maybe you want to just go straight up? Use a water block echo to make a direct bridge up!! The possibilities in this game are endless, you can play however you want with whatever strategy you come up with, the game lets you decide how you want to play!! I definitely recommend playing Echoes of Wisdom! I thoroughly enjoyed it and I believe you would as well!

(I will be splitting this reveiw up into three giant paragraphs)

¹ The beginning, ²The Goddesses, ³The end Fights!(Echo Zelda,Null)

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The Beginning

When I first started the game I was pleasantly surprised when you first get to play the game as Link in the beginning walk towards where Zelda is being held, as well as immediately fight Ganon!(It scared the crap out of me when the game made me fight him first cause I was NOT prepared!!) when Zelda finally breaks free and you get to move her around I was already squealing like a little pre-schooler! xD

After making my way back to Castle Town it was so interesting to talk to all the towns people and see how they reacted and acted around her(I love little Romi sm it hurts) and when the rift opened up and stole away the King, Minister Lefte, and Captain Wright it was so cool to see echoes of them come from the rift and trick all the guards.(even if it sucked for Zelda, and who knows what kind of trauma that gave her, but it's still cool for me!) Tri is such a brilliant companion to Zelda and compliments her well! The way it doesn't fully understand Hylian emotions helps give off that it has never really talked to Hylians before Zelda and that makes it a nice detail to see!!(I had to redo the guard scene so many times! ☜(ꐦ`o´) )

After escaping The castle and making my way to Lueberry's house it was fun to explore the still world for the first time! The first dungeon was such a blast to do, the puzzles were fun and some of them were actually kinda tricky and I'm happy I actually had to step back and think for a minute! When I first saw Echo Link I was kicking my feet and and smiling so wide my cheecks hurt! (I might of said oh my god a few to many times aswell) The fight was kinda hard since you didnt have much to work with in the beginning, I just threw pots to distract him then hit him with rocks xD (I mean if it works it works🤷‍♀️) Afterwards when I finally got to talk to Lueberry it was really interesting you could ask him about Link! Canonically Link is mute since he got stolen by a rift along with a bunch of other kids, but he was along some of the rare handful who managed to return back! I'm glad they gave him a reason as to why he doesn't speak instead of just say he doesn't speak just cause he can't.

I RUSHED To the Gerudo Desert to see what was going on and it was really fun to run around and explore! Meeting Dohna was really fun, and when we meet the Chief I love that Dohna took Zelda's side and defended her when the Chief didn't believe Zelda. (Idk if it's obvious but Omg- I LOVE Dohna!) The Gerudo dungeon was fun and I really enjoyed it! Fighting Echo Link this time was really hard(For me) but was still really enjoyable!!

The River Zora and the Sea Zora were very interesting! It was super fun getting to swim around and explore the waters for treasure! Having to look at the Leaders of the Zoras argument from both sides was pretty funny since both of their prides were so big they couldn't come to reason. Watching Lord Jabu Jabu swallow the assistants to the leaders was kinda unexpected but was still cool to see and also helped add a bit more urgency to the situation! The music elements were really nice and the Stilled Lord Jabu Jabu dungeon was really fun! It also took me a second to figure out a strategy to fight the shrimp Boss.(I forgot it's name😅)

Watching the Rift consume most of Castle Town was really cool!! It also made you want to hurry up and help save the people! Walking around the still world and making your way to Hyrule Castle was interesting and having to fight all the monsters was fun aswell as navigating the strange terrain! The boss fight was awesome, and Exploring stilled Hyrule Castle aswell as taking the same path you took in the begining to make it to where you needed to be was an awesome detail!! When you finally talk to the real King it really made me happy to see how much he cared about his daughter, yet he realised how she wasn't a little girl anymore and was the only one who could stop the rifts. (Also just my opinion but I couldn't stop raging throughout the game because they kept calling it "PrImE EneGY" when it's the FREAKING TRIFORCE!!!)

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The Goddesses

Heading to Holy Mount Lanayru was a fun journey since I got my horse on the way there! It took me about five minutes of wandering around and checking out the entrance before realising I had to blown it open with a bombfish echo. Going through the caverns and dealing with the monsters was pretty annoying but overall wasn't to hard, meeting Condè was super nice and having him jump us over the mountain was fun! (I love Condè and I will burn the world for him if anyone dares be mean to him) Watching Condè from afar and his interactions with his fathers grave was heart breaking, as well as seeing him so upset over the echo of his big brother and thinking he wasn't good enough is so sad. (It's also sad to relise that this is a very real situation that happens, especially with kids, and I kinda hope that little detail helps bring a little more awareness to the situations that children have to face) Going through the frozen dungeon was extremely fun, the puzzles were creative and I actually got stuck on a few! (especially the one where you have to time that ice cube and step on the platform) The boss fight was awesome and a little difficult, having to alternate between fire and ice echoes was kinda hard since you really had to pay attention to his helmet piece! Talking to the Goddess was cool but I kinda wish they gave a her a design and had her show up on screen instead of being a voice in a text bubble. Getting to speak with Condè again and telling him it wasn't his brother who was being mean to him was so sweet and I'm so happy he wasn't upset anymore and was just happy to know his brother was still out there and loved him!! (Also at the end of the game if you watch the entire credits roll like I did there is an image that pops up of Condè and a hot air balloon coming towards the mountain and he looked so happy, I was so giddy and just kicking my feet because I love Condè and I'm happy for him)

Going to Goron City was interesting with all the ledges you had to go up. Making my way through all the fire monster was annoying to say the least, I kept catching fire! (though that's probably me being bad tho) Talking with the Gorons was fun, I'm glad you could just hop right in to the rift and save them in the beginning! Saving the other two older gorons didn't take to long, and when I had to figure out how to open the sealed passage let me tell you that it took me a solid FIVE minutes to figure out that oh- hey- I should try pulling out the screw with Tri! Talking with Darston and helping him relise he didn't need to rely on his fathers tablet was nice to see, though I feel like it went a little fast to reach that resolve. I believe the Goron quest should have been much longer and helped focus more on Darston's development into becoming the new Chief, aswell as his realization of not needing his fathers tablet to be a good leader! Overall the fire dungeon was still good but definitely the quickest one! (for me atleast) The boss wasn't to hard but it was fun non the less. Overall the Goron quest was very good, it didn't take to long which was nice. My point still stands for Darston but overall it was still enjoyable!

Finding the entrance to the Faron Wetlands took a minute since I had to search the map for a bit to figure out the best way in. The electric monsters were extremly annoying especially the rain frog! Meeting the Deku Scrubs was fun but honestly I only really like a few of them. (Some of them are so egotistical though, like there egos reach higher than Mount Lanayru and some just act like little snot nosed kids. I can just imagine them singing skipidi toilet or saying "your so omega rizz" or whatever the newest genration of small kids are saying) Overall getting into the Sweet Spot didn't take to long, but seeing them get so angry at Zelda for FIXING THE RIFT THAT STOLE ONE OF YOUR HOMES was pretty annoying. When they threw her in jail it was kinda funny that they just dropped the literal key to the cell right outside the door. Getting through the part where you have to evade the Deku Scrubs wasn't to hard since I had practice from the guards at the beginning of the game, but it was still annoying. When you finally get into the Sweet Spot and those Deku Scrubs get stolen away I honestly wasn't even affected by it since they were acting all annoyed even though their friend was trying to help them! And the one Deku Scrub who was prioritizing "Cotton Candy" over their friends made me angry, I wish she got swallowed instead. When I say the Faron dungeon took forever I mean it took FOREVER! It was kinda complicated figuring out the layout since there are so many entrances, and having to get the keys from all over was stressful since I didn't really know which door I should be opening first. The dark rooms were pretty cool and the fact you had to light all the torches to turn the lights on was kinda annoying but fun. The moving chest element was nice. Overall it probably took about an hour-hour and a half to beat the dugeon.(not including the trial and error for the boss itself) When Zelda walked out of the Sweet Spot and got swallowed by the darkness it shocked me when it spit her out and an echo of her formed!! It was super cool to see it act like her and say that her form would work for this!! When Tri was worried about her it made me love them even more, when she finally woke up back in her room and the King was worried about her I was happy. When he said that she was the only one who could help stop the rifts and asked her as the Priestess for help it made me happy that he knew she was strong enough for this even though as a father he was still worried!

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The End

Going through the forest was pretty easy since I has already explored through it earlier not knowing what I was suppose to be doing there, I made a mental note to go back there previously.(I forgot) I teleported through there to reach the guards but I think I might have accidentally skipped a cut scene doing that. Putting the orbs into the torches only took a few minutes since I just ignored and or ran from the monsters. Seeing and talking to the Great Deku tree was nice since I wasn't sure if it was going to be in the game or not! Watching as echo Zelda took the triforce of power and then went after Link, as well as telling Zelda to basically screw off and I'll come back to beat you up later was equally cool and hilarious! Traveling through the still world to catch up to echo Zelda was cool since you have to go through a piece of every region! Fighting echo Zelda took awhile since I kept having to summon echoes to fight off the void monsters while I shot at echo Zelda in sword fighter form till she fell down to hit her with the sword. Shooting Link out of the crystal and saving him felt awesome as well as Tri saying we had to give back his equipment since we were going to fight together!(Though I didn't really want to give him the sword)

Making your way through Null's body was incredible and cool, though it was kinda gross. When Link and Zelda were split up it was so cool to have to help Link make his way through some of the puzzles! The little nods were so silly but cute to me since he canonically can't speak.(They actually mention this in the game, if you talk to Lueberry and read his journal in the basement you'll see it) The fight against Null was ROUGH, I just kept spawning level 3 echoes to fight him, watching his transformation was cool and him just having a full on monologue in the beginning was kinda funny to me! Fighting beside Link was super cool! Watching as Null became more unstable in each round was awesome and it made me so angry when he started using Tri's to power his attacks. When I finally beat Null I was so happy I couldn't sit still with joy! When the screen faded to white with Tri and Zelda I thought we were going to meet the goddesses, but when Tri turned to to Zelda and began to speak with her my heart began to slow down. Hearing it say that he was no longer needed since Null was gone and that it and it's friends would return back to the goddesses broke my heart.(I kept saying "nooo"and "My baby please don't go" (⌇ຶД⌇ຶ) ) When Tri said it was feeling something and it wanted to tell her it made me pay more attention from my wallowing. Hearing it say "I'm feeling... Thank you" broke me, like I actually started to cry!! When Zelda reached out and held Tri's hand(foot?) I was so upset. Watching it and the rest of the Tri's float away was so hard, I kept saying "please come back, noooo"! Watching through the entire credit scene was sad, but I still held onto hope that there would be an after credit scene. I really hoped there would be an after credit scene with Zelda, then out of nowhere Tri just appears! But sadly there wasn't, but watching Zelda sit in her room then seeing the framed tri-rod on the wall helped make me feel a little better though. As the screen faded to black I felt sad that it was over now and Tri was gone, but yet I still felt happy that I could play the game and got to experience it all!

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My Thoughts

It definitely was worth it, all the time, effort, and emotions. I 110% recommend you play EoW yourself and get to experience it all!! It is a wonderfully well thought out game and incredibly creative, you can easily fall in love with the characters and story. Playing through and meeting all the characters was extremely fun! There are so many side quests and so many possibilities to explore. This game truly lets you use your brain to explore the world in your own way!

Every game has it's flaws though, you can't make everyone happy. The echoes menu screen was kinda annoying to use since you had to pay attention to what you were picking out and sometimes had to spend a long time scrolling down to find what you were looking for. The loot in the chests was pretty repetitive, most of it was ingredients to make smoothies and or rupees. Though making smoothies is a focus in the game so I guess it was pretty obvious as to why they did it. I wish Zelda had more outfits, maybe some nods to past Zelda games could have been cool! Overall the game was pretty well though out and there weren't to many bugs. (Though a funny story is that when I was doing the cemetery quest, after I opened the passageway I decided to come back to it in a minute after I filled in a little more of the map. When I went back though- the entrance was covered by the tombstone again. BUT- the thing is the tombstone that had been shoved back was still there!! There were now two giant tombstones and I couldn't get in! xD I went back to the title screen and opened the game again and it was fixed but it was still pretty funny!)

Though 2d games aren't for everyone and a lot of people enjoy more 3d games I still recommend you give The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom a chance, you never know if you'll like something till you try it. :)

(Also I am NOT joking when I say that this took like 9 days to write!! I got really busy and I'm a slow writer.)

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So many players out there including I agree that after playing any Zelda game for a long time, after every challenge you can set for yourself, after every goal you can beat, after every exciting Dlc you can buy to keep your hunger for more fed you always come back to one wish. To play it again, to boot up the game for the first time, no memories, no more knowing exactly what will happen, no more beating to same boss over and over again till you can just beat him with a stick (LITERALLY). Just to play it again and feel that joy, that giddy joy like a child getting their favorite candy. To play and just experience it all again and feel that wonder of exploring the world, the excitement and triumph of beating your first boss, that feeling at the end of the game of accompaniment and joy yet sadness that it's over. If I could go back and play EoW again- matter of fact any Zelda game again and just play for the first time I would, just to do it all again I would because if you love a game enough you will wish you could. :)

[crow-caller]

ive been writing book reveiws for a while, just for me. like, i have a whole file full of docs about books ive liked, hated, or a bit of both. And I want to post them because i find them interesting, but im very nervous that I'll say something wrong or just ramble and sound stupid. You seem very put together though, did you have the same anxieties? if so, how did you overcome them?

(sorry if this is poorly written english is not my first language)

It's nice to know I seem put together, because I'm actually a huge mess and very sloppy!

Book reviews are very fun to write. I love the feeling of finishing a book and thinking about how I'll write up my thoughts. I've gotten better and developed more of a style over time too.

The first thing is to get a blog for it. I'd really recommend wordpress- I cross post here, but tumblr itself isn't a great format for a review blog. I'd also say crosspost to Goodreads/Storygraph. What helps with the anxiety of posting reviews is the fact you'll probably get only a few views. This sounds discouraging but can be a big plus. After having my blog casually for like 4 years and having over 100 (huh??) reviews, my total viewcount was still only a few thousand, like 2k a year. This was enough that friends were reading it and random internet people were, which was nice, but not so high I could panic I was going to get cyberbullied.

Posting a review and getting up to 50 views? That's 50 people who maybe read my review, baby! That's actually nice. That gives space to post reviews and feel confident doing so- getting a bit of positive feedback and feeling rewarded for writing the review, but also plenty of space to get better and improve at review writing. It's a small confidence boost that can encourage you to just keep writing.

I have quite bad anxiety- used to be worse- so I think about my reviews a lot. I also used to be worse at reviews, so I think about my old reviews a lot. The thing is, the best way to improve your writing is to keep writing. Find your own voice and system for it. And reread it! I reread my own reviews every so often to refresh my memory or for fun, and that really helps. Hindsight means I can see where I WISH I'd expanded on something more, phrased it better, or rambled. It's okay to ramble or be informal- I am- but if you're worried you do it too much, ask someone else for their thoughts or try using a structure. My reviews were all over the place until I started using sections like "Plot", "Characters", "Moon Squid Hell"!

Book reviewing is not something that is generally a high octane high fame thing. it's one of my precious hobbies I genuinely love, and if you've been writing reviews only for yourself, you obviously like it too! It'll only get a lot of attention if you're lucky, if you cover the right books, if you're even more lucky... but the reward of just getting to talk about something you read and put your thoughts down is fantastic. I wrote reviews for myself, but I found out by sharing them my friends liked them too, and so the biggest high of finishing a book and review was getting to post it in the group chat and seeing reactions. I really think the feeling of accomplishment for your work will best your anxiety, and rather than be discouraged if you don't get thousands of views immediately, having few views can actually beat your anxiety.

Hope that helps!

[mzhydes-funtimes]

I wanna design a sonic level for each character thats been playable

I do wanna note tho: if my mario maker skills are anything to go off of, it wont be very good but like i wanna make a level for each character to shine

I would probably start with it being 2D make a stage for sonic, tails, knuckles, then shadow, rouge, then amy, each seperate chaotix member, mighty, ray then cream, blaze, silver, then the oddball character bc she hasnt been in a traditional sonic game but she is important enough to be mentioned in forces sticks amd lastly our newest character trip

The few i didnt mention (big, omega) i dont know because of a few reasons:

1. They havent been playable in 2d in any sonic game and 2. I really hate how shitty the sonic wikis are: fandom i found someone writing their fanfic in the wiki, sonic-city is unmanuverable, like its a pain to load and worse off it dpesnt source any abilities and sonic retro is not finished.

I accidently went on a tangent abojt how shitty the sonic wikis are and how i wanna make a better one below this so if you wanna read this uhh read below the cut

And also just people apparently hate documenting in the sonic community because i cant find any controls or actions anywhere like i wanna know what tails' moves are in lets say advance, too bad we dont know its not on any wiki. Well what about if blaze the cat is playable in 06, dont know that either boss all we know is sonic shadow and silver are playable, well i have seen omega playable so who else is playable, dont know boss ya gonna have to play yourself

Like. Why is it so hard. It shouldnt be this hard. If anyone wants to help document this stuff please let me know we could probably get controls and stuff documented and make a wiki closer to the quality of like smash wiki or the minecraft wiki, or hell even wikirby

Like the sonic fandom needs a good quality wiki with thorough information and not just general summeries of characters and games, hell i betcha we could even make the comic and book sections better. We'd need lots of peer reveiwers tho

Shit i got off topic... umm ill just put a warning and a cut before i started ranting

[bigfinishaudioreviews]

Featuring: Eve Myles and Freema Agyeman

Set Between: Before ‘The End of time’

Stand alone? : Yes

Marks out of 10: 9/10

*Jump on point*

Summary of the plot

When Gwenn Cooper seeks out former colleague Dr Martha Jones to carry out an autopsy in secret, Martha’s not too happy about it. She’s keen to perform the task quickly and correctly and leave. But Gwenn has a bad feeling about all this, things are never that black and white with Torchwood and although the man is unmistakably dead, Gwenn’s scanner shows clear signs of life.

Review

When I saw that Big Finish had released a two-hander audio with Even Myles and Freema Agyeman I jumped at the chance to listen to it. For the most part it’s a character piece which gives both actors equal chance to show their skills, and they really do! The two clearly have great chemistry and bounce off each other well.

Tim Foley’s writing for both characters is spot on. What we have here is two confident and assertive people working together and understandably there’s clear friction between them. At times it’s almost a fight to be heard and respected but underneath that the compassion that both characters have also shows through. I find it hard to understand how Martha was such an underrated character in her time on Doctor Who. This story is set sometime before the events of “The end of time” and you can get a sense of a similarity in characterization. She’s far from the person who first stepped on board that TARDIS. This story bridges that gap nicely.

Despite the short length, the pacing is also spot on, shifting smoothly between each scene. Since the entire audio is set in one location and has a clear focal point that it is centered around, this made for a well-grounded and structurally sound story. I love a creepy story and, although they didn’t appear until later in the audio, there were some definite disturbing elements to this. Once again Big Finish’s sound department nails the atmosphere. Even in audio form, you can really sense the tension and claustrophobia in this lab and the sounds of the body at some points of this audio were just skin crawling.

This is Agyeman’s first Big Finish story, but after her strong performance here, I really hope it isn’t her last.

Buy it here

[dannyphantom-justiceleauge]

I'm kinda wondering how the rest of amity park would react to the justice league showing up every now and then and being all parental towards phantom. It would probably cement in people's minds that Phantom was definately a hero since the justice league is vouching for him. I also sort of wonder how they would feel about it after an identity reveal. Like imagine superman just turning up at school and being like 'you forgot your homework' and Danny just carrying on with his day.

the fentons would double down that danny is just tricking them, to be clear.

but for the public, yeah, they've pretty much accepted that danny is a hero and doing his best. seeing him interact with other heroes actually makes him more approuchable and results in news crews successfully asking questions and getting answers. lance thunder initially hated that he was the one being forced to talk with the clearly dangerous ghost but after it's established that danny is just an awkward teen, he gets a bit more comfortable and at times agressive in his questioning of danny. so danny has the oppertunity to clear the air. "why did you kidnap the mayor" "he was possessed". danny rarely sticks around to answer more than one question though. the other supers also get asked about their opinon on danny. he gets glowing reveiws so even people outside of amity like and support this ghost kid. whats good enough for superman is good enough for me.

the flip of post revelation is that i see danny being popular going straight to his head. like god knows the popular kids are going to try and use danny to meet their favorite heroes (outside of him of course). and i don't know, it really depends on the landscape of the school after his identity reveal. like my guess would be he's supper popular and pretty often surrounded. he has open permission to go fight ghosts but is still expected to finish his homework. lancer is a lot more lenient with him and down to help him study after school, because goddamnit, he is going to give this kid an education. even sam, tucker, and jazz are more popular. but i don't know, i feel like there's still tension to be had here. danny has been shown multible times to not handle popularity well. sure this time his friends are with him. but he's gotten used to being secritive and a loser, using his loser status to get away with things. that's another thing, pranks and destruction of property are gonna be blamed on him now. it's a lot harder to get away with that when everyone knows he has superpowers.

i think danny will probably need distance from that popularity and attention. having the heroes pop in doesn't actually help with that. i could see danny hiding in the tower or coming up with brand new places to disappear to, or even hanging out in the ghost zone, because despite his hero status they still treat him the same. the supers might figure out or at least have a conversation with danny that reveals his discomfort, so they'd back off. but probably whenever danny wants to show off or make a big impression he will 100% call on them to back him off.

i don't know, it's a lot - hestia

[elaz-ivero]

Written in reveiw // reflecting on my writing this year

This year was the year I finally felt like my prose had reached a standard that feels compatable with the stories I aim to tell, I’m more articulate, the plots of my stories have become more interesting and enganging and my dialoge no longer feels like it’s been put through google translate one too many times.

Here’s everything I wrote this year: 

Short Stories: 4

Sumatran’s a type of tiger, 2673 words

Sumatran’s a type of tiger was the first story I wrote that didn’t have a coded white narrator and is the most complex and layered story I’ve written to date. It has three layers, with triple meanings and every repeat read reveals new previously hidden information around the protagonist and better clarifies the cliffhanger ending. I’m super proud of its quick and engaging narrative and strong and cohesive plot but I do admit it gets pretty complicated at time and it wasn’t surprising that cutting it down to 5,000 words would cut out some important information. Overall a really stong story but definitely getting someone to read through it first before submitting it next time. 

Yard Work, 1,869 words

Yard Work is a short story I wrote for my first English class which is why it’s so short, however, it’s a super interesting story that evolves really fluidly and I intend to lengthen it to a submittable length so it’s going in the short story section and not the flash fiction section. I love how all the little details help cement this story into believability, with all the books and board games being published or that specific edition being around in the 1940′s. Each of the siblings feel so real and I can’t help but wonder whether my subconscious slipped details of my own sisters into this story. But this story is just evidence of how much! my! plot! has! improved! The narrator’s motives are so complex and the progression of the house being emptied and it’s contents sold to symbolize him fully abandoning and cutting off his toxic living family members by making their memories move out is so nice to read. 

Cabin Teeth, 3,000

I wrote Cabin Teeth after reflecting on my writing and realising how white it was and so I started consuming and reading more diverse writing and so when I started drafting my first horror story my main characters were naturally diverse and the story from then on developed into one of my favourites. It’s that perfect kind of horror, the kind seen in Hereditary and Mindsommar the kind that sticks with you and feels eerily familiar. Everything is unknown and I loved adding little details that emphasized how ‘off’ everything is. The fact that Carrie has the money to book out an entire holiday park but not enough to afford her own apartment, that Harrison’s teeth have been growing overnight, the fact that Tans family were finishing a catered funeral four months prior to the death. It all culminates in a hauntingly nostalgic tale. I can’t wait to write more horror in 2021. 

Flash Fiction: 3

Kidnappers Favour, 300 words

Artwork by J.C Leyendecker

Kidnappers Favour is basically a call out post by the narrator on why he doesn’t care that Casper, the village baker’s boy was kidnapped and cruelly wonders why out of all the kids in his town the stranger chose to take him as well as clearing his name and formulating an alibi for how it wasn’t him. The story was a one-off submission and I love how the tiny word count challenged me to introduce concepts and information to the reader in a few short sentences. 

Little excerpt /-“It'd be a matter of hushing his howling. His kidnapper would have to be quiet too and not cry or curse when he scratched and bit, and yet someone did. They did the whole thing, the taking and the hiding.”

Maybe it’s better if the kids are left alone, 500 words

Maybe it is, maybe it isn’t, this story was a response to a heritage photograph of a group of children wading in a brook supervised by a couple teens. I adore stupid little stories that perfectly capture the energy and experience of growing up in a small town with friends you know but not too well and one or two good hang out spots. It needs to be rewritten so bad, I wrote it when I really didn’t care how good it was and now I’m looking back and having regrets. 

Night Blooming, 1,000 words

Night Blooming is an Inuit lesbian love story with motifs of nocturnal flowers, she-wolves and arroyo’s vast bodies of water. It follows the narrator falling in love with married Quppa. I absolutely loved doing the research for this piece but unfortunately I didn’t finish it before the deadline for it’s paired competition so now It sits in my google drive...waiting. 

Beginning/Developing Big Projects in the New Year, 2

In a month I wrote 21,000 words for Sun Ballad and I’ve just recently finished Chapter Six

+

I’ll be starting to draft Celestial Bodies In 2021 with my co-writer and can’t wait to write my first screenplay. 

Moving Forward/ Writing Goals

-Improving Dialouge + Productivity 

-Diversifying projects and escaping my genre comfort zone

-Elaz

[castleshadows]

infernal devices review/rant?

I just finished the infernal devices series for the first time today, and wanted to rant/reveiw. So this will be the first of my books reveiws I post on tumblr, becuase I find I enjoy these. 

First of all, I cannot stand all three of the Infernal Devices main characters. Tessa is annoying and all she talks about is her confliction between Will and Jem. Like we already know your going to end up with Will, you don’t need to spend eight pages every chapter whining about it. Will is funny, but a grade A douchebag for the first two books. Not to mention in Clockwork Princess he does a lot of lovesick whining of his own. I kind of like Jem, but not only is he boring, every interaction between he and Tessa is cringe-worthy. It may just be me and the fact that I can’t stand how ridiculous normal relationships were in the 1800′s, but the fact that all they do is blab on about their unconditional love for each other has at least something to do with it. Really the only characters I like are the side characters (half-main characters since they had POV’s?). The interactions between Cecily and Gabiel, Gideon and Sophie, and Charlotte and Henry, have been a few my favorites. (A quick shout out to Cecily for giving me the entertainment the rest of Clockwork Princess was sorely lacking.) As well as the few scenes with Magnus Bane, who will always and forever be one of my all time favorite Shadowhunter’s characters.However most of these characters don’t even have big parts in the story until the last book, and even then it’s sparingly. 

Don’t get me wrong, there were parts of this book I really liked. Will’s obsession with Demon Pox and the song he wrote about it for one. I thought the whole clockwork automation army idea was cool, and found some of the battle scenes midly entertaining, my favorite being at the beginning of Clockwork Princess when Gabriel and Gideon’s father was a giant worm. (Myddengard worm from ACoTaR vibes anyone?) I found the letter’s written by the Lightwood brothers to the Consul one of the funniest parts of the series. The first one especially. Jem becoming a Silent Brother was something I found to be interesting, and though I knew about it before because of The Mortal Instruments, finding out the specifics and how it was possible was something I enjoyed. 

In conclusion, The Infernal Devices by Cassandra Clare disapointed me just a bit. This series is hyped up so much over several media platforms, and I was extremely excited to read it becasue I liked the Mortal Instrments so much (only the books without incest though). This series as a whole just wasn’t something I personally like all that much. There are people out there who love this series and I can see why they would, but it just wasn’t to my taste.

[little-bookshelf-dragon]

February Wrap Up (Finally)

Okay! So I’m finally getting to this...five days late. Oops. Just to clear that up, I started a reading journal towards the end of February and wanted to do entries for the month of February before making this post. I’m hoping that this will help me organize my thoughts for my reviews. So I can actually... post reviews. 

Anyway. Here we go! I’m going to begin with my overall thoughts and then go into my stats and put reviews under the cut so if you haven’t read these books and want to avoid spoilers you can! 

Overall thoughts on this month’s reading: 

I DNF’d one-third of my TBR this month (two of six. I say one third like it’s so many more than that). It’s a little funny that I had so much more success with the books I hadn’t actually planned to read than my TBR. I’m also kind of surprised that I made it through some of the books that I did, when I DNF’d other books for similar reasons. I did go into this month knowing that this was going to be a difficult bunch of books to get through, 

I think I’m going to have to adjust my Goodreads reading challenge. I’ve already more than halfway through it and its only February. I'm honestly surprised. I didn’t think I was going to make it through the 52 I had planned.  

Stats for this month: 

Total Books Read (Finished): 18 

DNF’d Books: 2

Books I need to Finish: 4

All-Out: The No-Longer-Secret Stories of Queer Teens Throughout the Ages by Saundra Mitchell, et al. 

City of Lost Souls by Cassandra Clare

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by JK Rowling

We Are the Ants by Shaun David Hutchinson 

Academic Books: 3

A Midsummer Night’s Dream by  Willaim Shakespeare 

Young Goodman Brown by Nathaniel Hawthorne

Pride & Prejudice by Jane Austen

Ratings: 

Five Stars: 5

Four Stars: 7

Three Stars: 4

Two Stars: 2

One Star:  0

Spoilery Reviews Under the Cut! 

DNF’d Books: 

Frozen by Melissa De LaCruz and Micheal Johnston

It was a weird book. In general. And then the Scene that implied sexual assault happened, and I had to stop reading. I just couldn’t bring myself to finish it. 

Ender’s Game By Orson Scott Card

I was having trouble getting into the book in the first place, and then I realized that these were six year old kids. Being trained for war. Against aliens. As I have a sister who’s six, this didn’t sit well with me. 

Two Star Books:

Echo by Alyson Noel 

I was really dissappointed in this book. I really enjoyed the first book in the Soul Seekers book, Fated. I liked the worldbuilding, the relationship between Daire and Dace, the concept of the Echo. But I had too many complaints about this book. Mainly with Cade. I feel like I could have liked him more if he had some actual development and clearer motivations. Though, I think the attempted rape scene was a little much (that’s an understatement.) I think it would be nice if there were a YA book where the female MC wasn’t assaulted, or at least that addresses it properly afterward. 

A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas

I’m honestly surprised that I finished this one, after I DNF’d another book for similar things happening. I didn't like Feyre much. She didn't seem to have much moe to her character other than painting and hunting. For someone who was meant to be so strong willed, she seemed to change her mind too easily. Rhysand...I don’t know where it start with him. He’s not much of one here, but it’s pretty obvious that they’re setting him up as a love interst in the later books. Can we stop having abusive boyfriends in YA lit? Tamlin was a little pathetic. Maybe don’t alienate the one person that’s your shot at freedom? Maybe? Feyre and Tamilin’s relationship was cute, but it wasn't really all that convincing. 

Three Star Books:

The Maze Runner by James Dashner

The Maze runner was good. I’m not sure if it was good enough to deserve the hype it received. I did not like that there was so much that was left unanswered in the beginning. It’s one thing to withhold information to create interest. It’s another to taunt your readers by having a character ask the questions, and the others refusing to give an answer. I did think the ending was an interesting twist, to stage a ‘rescue’ and then have it turn out to be apart of the trials. 

Love Drugged by James Klise 

There’s...a lot to unpack with this one. At first, the general premise made me feel a little sick. I almost stopped reading it several times thoughtout the book, especially when the chaacters described being gay as a disease. But by the time I finished, I think I understood better. Jamie was being mainipulated, not just by the doctor, but by society to think that way. His journey to discover and understand himself leads to his desperate actions in an effort to escape that manipulation. It’s heartbreaking to know that Jamie's thoughts were based off of off the author’s when he was around the same age.   

Take Two by Julia Devillers & Jennifer Roy 

I was kind of disappointed in this book. I loved the first one when I was younger, so the fact that I didn’t feel the same about the sequel is a let down. Though I guess that might have to do with the difference in age between the times I read them   

Young Goodman Brown by Nathaniel Hawthorne 

Four Star books: 

Mockingjay by Suzzane Collins 

I cried so much reading this book. Katniss yelling at Buttercup at the end broke me. Her “for Prim” before the execution was beautiful (I’ll admit it took me some time to realize she was hinting at what she was planning to do.) Cinna having a part in the rebellion even after his death. The amount that Haymitch cares about Peeta and Katniss. UGH the feels. I did have a problem with the pacing. I felt like all the action was squeezed in at teh end. And Peeta and Katniss’s relationship seemed to seesaw between them in it’s one-sidedness throughout the series. 

Duel Of Fire by Jordan Rivet 

I did not expect to enjoy this book as much as I did. Especially at he beginning, I thought the characters were annoying. But that GROWTH. By the end, I loved the characters. I had a hunch about who the rebels were, but I wasn’t sure until they were revealed. I loved the magic system and world building, and I can’t wait to see how the story will be developed in the next book and the rest of the series. 

Steelheart by Brandon Sanderson

This was my first Brandon Sanderson book and I was not disappointed. The concept was interesting, the Epics having a specific weakness kept them from being overpowered, and I loved the fact that  the “Normal people” weere the heroes (For the most part.) I KNEW there was somehing up wiht Megan. But Steelheart’s weakness completely threw me off. I had so many theories, but I was wrong on all of them. That was a plot twist done well. 

City of Fallen Angels by Cassandra Clare

(I’m actually not going to include my notes here because they turned into more of a rant at the characters than an actual reveiw) 

Galatea by Madaline Miller

I want more of this. Any additional content, I want it. It says something that she felt the only way to escape was to die (And take her husband with her). I REALLY want to know what happened with their daughter.  

The Skin I’m In by Sharon G. Flake 

This is a reread for me. I read tthis book when I, I believe,  was the same age as Maleeka. And at the time, while I had never been in the same situations she’s in, I could still relate to her. Now, as an adult working with students Maleeka’s age, I see my students. It gives me a better insight to what might be going on in their homes, thoughts, and attitudes. This is a book that so many of them should read, just like so many of them could use a Ms. Saunderson. 

A Midsummer Night’s Dream by Willaim Shakespeare

Five Star books:

Clockwork Prince by Cassandra Clare 

This book. This book. I audiobooked most of it, which meant that I was listening to it in class while working. Which means I cried. During class. This is one of the few love triangles I think I’ve ever really liked and am actually emotionally invested in. I fully understand the hype around this series. I can't wait to pick up the next one.   

The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo

After finishing the audiobook, I'm sitting here trying to find the words to describe how much this means to me. How many of Xiomara's thoughts and feelings I relate to. And I just can't find the words. I can't remember the last time a book meant this much to me. Wanting to find my own voice. Beginning to question the religion that has been such a big part of my life for a long time. Feeling like I have to hide parts of myself, my thoughts, my feelings, everything I wish I could say but can't, from people I care about. Wanting my own writing to mean something to others. I wish I could put what I'm feeling into words, but I'm struggling. I cried. I need a copy of this book. I loved it so much.

Saint Anything by Sarah Dessen

I feel like Dessen’s books follow a pattern. I’ve only read three so far, but I’m able to see the similarities. However, that dosn't stop them from being unique. Sydney’s problems are different from Macy’s, whose are different from Collie’s. So while the books are similar enought to notice a pattern,  they’re unique enough to keep the reader’s interest. I wouldn’t say that Saint Anything has impacted me as much as some books have, but I did still enjoy it. Also, a moment of appreciation for instances of sexual assault handled correctly? It's rare to see the subject addressed in a book after it happens. Though I would have loved to see Ames prosecuted. We need to tell girls it's okay to speak up about these things.

Tell Me Again How a Crush Should Feel by Sara Farizan

I loved this. I’m not even sue how to put it all inot words. First of all, Saskia getting expelled? Excellent. That girl made me so mad. Messing with Lila’s feelings was bad enough, but hen going stalker, assualting her, and then outing her to the entire school? I think I would have liked to see even more of a punishment, honestly. Maybe someting from her parents. LISA. I loved Lisa. I’m so happy she and Leila ended up together. They both deserved to be happy and I’m so happy they got to be happy together. I was so emotional after finishing this book.  

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen 

I’m not going to go too in depth because then this would be way too long but this is my favorite book that I’ve had to read for a calss. Ever. 

[antigoneblack]

Kaite’s Summer Must Read: Esther Series - In an age of sail and cannon, where airships ply the skies instead of oceans, the Barbarian Kingdoms of Madraus think they’ve got it all figured out, but they’re in for a surprise when they attack 16-year-old Esther’s village. While it’s a bad day for Esther when she gets captured after helping her family escape, it’s worse for the Madrausans, because now they’ve unwittingly unleashed a force upon the world that just…won’t…stop! Esther is thrown into the middle of a plot to assassinate a King and she must decide how far she is willing to go to accomplish what she sees as her duty, because when no one believes you, the fate of nations really does ride upon your shoulders. The days of innocence are over. The days of hardship have begun. Retribution will be hers!

Reveiw:

First off, I would like to say that I really enjoyed reading this series! It has tons of imagery and the writing style was easy enough to follow without cutting back on the story (big brownie points in my opinion 😁). To me it was almost a mix between the style seen in Becoming Lady Lockwood and the Throne Of Glass series by Sara J Mass. However this being said it was still very unique in and of itself. I loved the first book particularly because of the way the adventure and action unfolded and seamlessly transitioned. But can’t help but to also love the second book because of the personal growth seen in all of the characters, especially in Esther. Don’t know if there will be a third one but I sure hope that there will be as my reaction upon finishing Retribution was, “what the heck! How could you kill off that one character Mr.Boswell?” I would recommend this to mature young adults/teenagers as some elements could be hard for younger readers to grasp, particularly one scene in the first book. For me it was a quick read as I just kept turning the pages! Thanks for writing this series it has been a great way to spend summer break!

[kathy11034841-blog]

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[bigfinishaudioreviews]

Featuring: Gareth David-Lloyd, Bethan Rose Young and David Shields

Set Between: Season one and season three

Stand alone? : Yes

Marks out of 10: 9/10

*Jump on point*

Summary of the plot

Ianto Jones investigates an empty office block where strange things are happening.

There’s really nothing more I can say to that synopsis without spoiling the story. Like with most big finish stories, the less you know before listening the better it will be.

Review

This is Torchwood meets haunted house type thriller, and why it’s taken this long for us to get a story like this is beyond me, because this is exactly the kind of material that the Torchwood series should have been incorporating. Right from the get go there’s a sinister vibe. I think the reason I enjoy James Goss’s writing so much is not so much the concepts and ideas themselves, but the detail in his world building. In true James Goss fashion, there's some unexpected twists and turns and each time you think you are going to receive answers you are left with another question. Goss defiantly keeps the listener on their toes and I love that. 

Rather than portraying that loveable coffee boy side of Ianto, this story explores a different, darker side of him. We are somewhat aware that Ianto at least has a slightly darker side from episodes of torchwood such as Cyberwoman and giving a character new layers is never a bad thing, but this doesn’t quite feel like the same Ianto we know.

Whilst Gareth David-Lloyd is brilliant as ever, I have to say I was glad when another actor was brought in. When you have a one hander audio, you’re often left with someone simply talking to themselves, there's really no way round it. Sometimes that works well, but often it seems forced and unrealistic. Both Bethan Rose Young and David Shields did an excellent job with their charecters.

Buy it here